2023 Farm Share Week 20: Last Week + Thank You + Season Review

Hi Farm Friends!

Can you believe that we have reached the end of our 2023 (main season) Farm Share?!

We are SO THANKFUL that you have been with us on this journey of farming and veggies. Read on for my annual season review and a lot of gushy virtual hugs from me to you.

p.s. Don't forget to return all your green bags this week! If you're not continuing with the Fall Share, we will send your veggies home in a paper bag this week. Thanks!

A Few Quick Highlights/LowLights from 2023

New infrastructure + improvements: we installed a caterpillar tunnel (an unheated movable hoophouse for fall and spring season extension), a tool shed, drainage pipes for north field, new sprinkler set ups that are automated and will irrigate a block of beds at a time. We also took down (but have yet to install) a massive greenhouse for increasing summer production length and yield of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, beans.

New equipment: root washer, golf cart, a faster greens washing station, a new fridge for the store, square POS for debit/credit transactions in the store

Crop successes: greens (salad mix), tomatoes (best year yet!), peppers, eggplant, kale, spring onions, onions, bok choy, chard 

Crop problems: beets (summer and fall), watermelon (wet season!), fall broccoli + cabbage, carrots 

Biggest lesson: plant fall crops earlier, long-term field crops need regular fertigation (we use compost tea and fish emulsion), plant more carrot beds and prepare them in advance

Happy standouts: having Saturdays free from markets! Driving around in the golf cart. Having Jonathon join the team full time! Taking a week off in the summer to go to the family cottage! 

Not-so-happy standouts: Vehicle repair and maintenance. Sarah’s last season working with us. Wet fields in the late summer. Broccoli being eaten by rodents in the field.

Biggest successes: We experienced some of our best yields this season, and our highest sales. The Farm Store replaced markets. We had our largest membership yet at 166 members. Our Annual Seedling Sale continues to grow. 

What we’re looking forward to for next season: Preparing beds in advance in the fall to prepare for spring, adding a paper potter transplanter to our operation so we can do less manual transplanting, having more greenhouse space, increasing our Farm Share membership and offerings. We’re also excited to have a spring open house, and continue our tradition of a spring planting party and a fall potluck. 

2023 Year Review in Pictures 

In January, we started to plan. We completed our crop plan, which tells what to plant, how much, where and when; we bought our seeds; we applied for a loan to purchase a greenhouse and improve our farm instructure and tools. We made budgets, we ordered supplies, we made hiring decisions; we did a lot of planning, and we made the big decision to stop attending farmers’ markets.

In February, we planted our first spring crops in our unheated greenhouse. We also marketed and planned our seedling sale. 

And we chopped a lot of wood.(we also went to Great Wolf Lodge; I promise you we got some rest as well)

In March, we began to plant seeds. A lot of them.

 We took down a caterpillar from another farm and moved it here. 

Plants began to sprout in the greenhouse. 

By April, the garlic had sprouted, and we were planting tomatoes, and the season was REALLY ON! But in the end we learned that the tomatoes we planted in our *slightly heated* greenhouse did not mature faster or become more successful than the ones we planted a few weeks later in our completely unheated greenhouse. Farming is a series of ongoing lessons learned.

Sadly, the bees that we had taken over from Z&Bee did not do well over the winter. Only one hive survived. Unfortunately, we just don’t know enough yet about beekeeping to say what happened, but we do know that many beekeepers have suffered similar losses.

We began to prepare beds, and ran into a few machinery problems that fortunately were fixed with excellent customer service, though it was still quite a hitch in our plans at times.

The plants kept on growing, the work kept on growing, and we all started working full time.

We had some unusually nice weather in April before it got cold again. It was helpful for bed prep, and going to the beach!

We had our first harvest and set up our caterpillar tunnel!

We transplanted our first crops into the field!

And we continued to prepare for our seedling sale

In May, it was time to get the rest of the tomatoes in the greenhouse, and our big plantings into the field. Cabbages, broccoli, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, zucchini, melon. We had a crew of volunteers come to help out! 

Our store opened and we had our 4th annual seedling sale to great success!

Our workshare members started! We are so extremely lucky to have had their help throughout the season. Farming ain’t easy but they came out every week to brave the weather and the work with us. They tell us they had a good time too! Maybe you want to do this next year?

May, things are growing and moving at an unstoppable pace. Jonathan and Alex were prepping beds on a weekly basis, working hard to keep up

We were feeling strong and alive and happy in May. It was a successful start to the season!

With June, the harvest started in earnest;

Our Farm Share began! We were so happy to have reached our membership goal this year. And a bit relieved too, because so much relies on it.

We were planting, harvesting, bed prepping, seeding, transplanting, and I think somewhere in there we even took down a greenhouse.

By July, things were (even more of) a blur. The teenager reinforcements came (Tristan and Dean). The zucchinis and cucumbers kept on coming. We harvested garlic. We planted fall crops. We were so happy with how many people were coming to our store each week, and how well things were growing!

The tomatoes were here and were producing better than ever!

We even temporarily adopted a tiny kitty. 

July has a momentum that will not quit.

By August, things did not slow down but we did manage to get a week off at the cottage! Myself (Kim) and the kids got 2! When we got back, peppers were full on producing and it was time to harvest the onions! Alex had fun experimenting with some value-added cooked items in the store; salsa, baba ganoush, pesto. We want to do more of that next year and even add in an on-farm kitchen!

We got the rest of our fall crops in, but maybe a bit later than we should have, so we will adjust in our crop plan for next season. Our first planting of fall carrots succumbed to weeds so we tilled it over and planted again, having to accept a late harvest. 

Unfortunately, the rain in August hurt many of our fall crops so we didn’t get a good harvest of cabbage, beets, or broccoli. And some of our fall crops got in late as well because of the rain. 

I guess August was the hardest month at the farm this year.

Our pictures slowed down this time of year, because our energy is waning too! 

In September, we cleaned our garlic, said goodbye to the teens, and continued with a smaller crew. We took out our tomatoes and planted our greenhouses.

Sarah had her last day at the end of September. This is a sad thing to process. We’re really grateful for everything she has done for us here on the farm, helping us get to the point where  we are now. And we'll miss her steady presence. But we also understand the need for change. She'll always have a place here at our farm and our hearts. 

In October, we held a Farm Share potluck. It was a really fun day with good food and good company. This will be an annual tradition on the farm, as a way to connect with our members, show the farm to folks, and say thank you. It also gave us a really good push to clean up the farm!!

We continued to harvest, bed prep, and moved the caterpillar tunnel over our fall kale and chard. We installed drainage in the north field with a big trench and filled it in. I wish I had a picture of Jonathon and Alex; they were troopers out there in the mud. 

And now here we are, at the end of our season. The main season, anyway! These pictures are only a small collection of the many, many tasks we did this year and the many different vegetables we grew. It was a full season, tons of work, lots of successes, inevitable failures - but lots of learning, as always. And good food, friendships, fresh air, a beautiful chance to connect to this precious natural world of ours. 

Of course, it's not quite over! We run a smaller Fall Share from November - December, which we hope to grow over the years to accommodate as many members as our main season. 

And our store will still be open too, with an option to purchase online for pick up and delivery!

So the harvest continues, but the majority of our season’s work is now behind us. We’re looking forward to slower days, less vegetables to worry about keeping alive (haha), and some upcoming family time.

I’d like to extend a big thank you for being part of our Farm Share this season – whether it’s your 5th season, your first, or you’ve only been with us the last couple weeks. Having you along with us on this farming journey makes it all possible. We appreciate every one of you. As I always like to say, you are keeping us growing - in more ways than one. Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

Goodbye for now. We hope to see you again.

Your Mulberry Moon Farm farm-ily,

Kim, Alex, Rosemary and Lark